Unfinished Parts
by IllusiveSpectre
Summary: FemShepxLiara/Destroy Ending. Commander Rory Shepard and Liara are destined to be together, but it can be hard when one is missing in the wreckage of the Citadel and the other's location is still unknown. They've always found their way back to each other before, but the aftermath of the Reaper War may be their toughest challenge yet.
1. Prologue

**Hi there. To expand on the summary, this story is follows Commander Rory Shepard, Colonist/Sole Survivor/Infiltrator. For some background info, she romanced Liara and stayed loyal, and she is mostly Paragon but definitely has her Renegade moments (don't we all). Even though they were very close friends, she had to leave Kaidan behind on Virmire, which in my headcanon, was something my Shep struggled with immensely throughout the series. Finally the (probably) most important thing you need to know before reading this, is that this is a Destroy ending fic. I try to follow the canon as much as possible, but there are a few tweaks I made concerning the extent of the Mass Relay damage.**

**If I make any mistakes feel free to let me know, I always enjoy getting any kinds of comments/criticisms you might have. Well I guess all there is left to say is thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy :)...I should go.**

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Unfinished Parts: Prologue

"Ma'am, I don't think we're going to find anything up here. I mean look at the place, its a shit hole."

Miranda Lawson bit her tongue to keep herself from yelling at the Alliance marine. She didn't take her eyes off her omnitool as she made her way through more rubble. "Keep looking."

"But-"

"I said _keep looking_." she snapped at the marine, finally turning to look at him. "I believe Hackett's orders were perfectly clear. You are under _my_ command for this mission, so when I say keep looking, you fucking do it."

The marine, who's name tag read "Gatlin", stared at the ex-cerberus officer blankly before looking back to his omnitool. "Yes, Ma'am." he replied quietly before resuming his work.

Miranda took a deep breath before looking over the vast piles of rubble her and a team of 300 plus alliance marines, complete with shuttles and mechs, were in the process of sifting through. It was hard to believe that just a day ago this pile of crap used to be the Citadel, the center of galactic civilization. All along it was their missing piece to defeating the reapers, and less than twelve hours ago the whole puzzle came together. An unexplainable red light emerged from the Citadel and came pulsing through the universe. And in it's wake it brought the reapers down, as well as destroying most of the Citadel, disarming the Mass Relays, and as far as they knew shut down the Geth.

She didn't know whether the changes were permanent or not. She received her orders almost seven hours ago from Admiral Hackett to shuttle up to the wreckage of the Citadel with a team. She had one goal: find Commander Shepard.

Earlier she had been quite confused when she was told she had an urgent and classified message from the head of the Alliance military. She was afraid Hackett may have found out about her having access to their resources to save her sister, or perhaps he needed someone to convict for the crimes Cerberus had committed over the years. It was a completely illogical place for her mind to go, considering it was just hours after the Reapers had been destroyed, and everyone was in the midst of a celebration. But even after all been through with Shepard, her first instinct was to distrust the Alliance.

* * *

_Earlier..._

Miranda was still with her team of ex-Cerberus personnel on Earth in the midst of helping transport the wounded when she answered the call.

"Ms. Lawson." Hackett greeted her through an omni-tool connection.

"Admiral Hackett?" she answered in a quizzical tone.

"I know this may strike you as odd, but it seems I have an assignment for you."

"What kind of assignment?"

"We can't find Shepard." Hackett replied quietly, as if he could barely bring himself to say it out loud.

Miranda's heart sank as she struggled to find the words to respond. Miranda realized she had not even stopped to think about where Shepard was. When she saw that the Crucible had been a success and the Reapers were destroyed, she assumed Shepard would be on her way back to Earth, Normandy crew in tow. She had been so busy with her own crew's safety and care she hadn't even begun to think about-she couldn't be missing, she was Commander Shepard.

"Last known location?" Miranda quickly brought herself back to reality. The Admiral took her question as confirmation of her acceptance of the task.

"The Citadel, we believe somewhere near the Presidium...God I guess it's not even there anymore after the blast." he cleared his throat. "The last signal I had from Shepard was somewhere near where we docked the Crucible before it fired. After that any signals from the Citadel went blank."

"Don't you have a team to send up there?" Miranda asked. She didn't doubt his capabilities, she was just extremely curious as to why he contacted her.

"We have sent two teams up there already to analyze what we are working with." Hackett explained. "The Citadel is heavily damaged, and they are working to rescue any civilians possible. The location that took the most damage seems to be very close to where we last had Shepard's signal."

"Could she be with the Normandy?"

"Not likely, The Normandy had orders to vacate the Sol system in fear of the unknown reaction of the Crucible. We still had a signal from Shepard while the Normandy was evacuating. Unfortunately I cannot know for sure...we've lost communication with ships outside of the system. An unfortunate consequence of the Mass Relays being disabled from the Crucible firing."

"The relays are damaged? How severe?" Miranda had heard chatter of the relay's utter destruction, but did not want to believe it.

"There's no way to know for sure at this moment. We've got a team on it, but for now I'd like to focus on locating the Commander."

"Of course, what do you need from me?"

"There will be a shuttle picking you up shortly. I'll forward what we know to your omni-tool. The entire search team will be under your command." Hackett explained.

"_My _command?"

"Yes, your command Ms. Lawson." Hackett confirmed. "I understand you're a bit of an expert when it comes to keeping Shepard alive."

Miranda smiled. "Well I guess there is no denying that."

"Now get up there and _find her_." she could sense the desperation in his voice.

"I'll do everything in my power to locate Shepard sir."

"Hackett out."

* * *

Now here she was amidst the devastation of the Citadel cursing herself for not putting a god damn tracking chip in Shepard during Project Lazarus. Her only hope was that they found the Commander in better shape then they had almost 3 years ago. A partially in-tact body would be nice this time, but knowing the Commander she wouldn't let Miranda get by without a challenge.

She would have smiled thinking about her friend if she wasn't currently sifting through wreckage to find her body. Walking over piles of unidentifiable rocks Miranda kept track of the data feeds and readings sent to her by the alliance team, while also searching manually through rubble herself. She wouldn't give up until she found Shepard...but she was starting to feel increasingly desperate as the hours passed by. And if there was one thing Miranda Lawson hated feeling it was desperation.

"Ma'am!" The now familiar and increasingly irritating voice of Gatlin called from behind her. Miranda's patience was wearing very, very thin.

"Sergeant Gatlin if you do not want to continue searching through this 'shit hole' then I suggest you either keep those thoughts to yourself or you can catch the next shuttle back to Earth. And good luck trying to explain to Admiral Hackett why you just can't bring yourself to continue searching for the savior of the galaxy."

"No ma'am, that's not it."

"Then what is it?"

"I think we found her."


	2. Chapter 1: Dance On Our Graves

**Hi there :). First off, I would like to thank all of you for the reviews/follows on this story. I really just threw this story together for fun, and to get feedback is just super cool. I know the last chapter gave very little to go on with this story, and I'm not sure this chapter is really any better haha. I guess I'm trying to take it slow :P. I wasn't really sure about this chapter when I started it, and I'm still not quite sure about how much I like it, but I hope you guys do. I'll try to update this again soon, but unfortunately classes have started up for me again, and apparently science stops for no one. With what free time I have, I'll be writing/updating as quick as I can. Have a lovely rest of the weekend, and I hope to see you guys soon :)**

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Chapter 1

Rory Shepard was burning. Her insides and outsides felt ablaze in a way that made her certain she must have finally made it to hell. She wanted to scream but everything she had seemed to be caught in her throat, swallowed by the smoke. She couldn't seem to bring herself to even form a thought, and finally after what felt like years she gave in to the pain, letting it engulf her until it was all she knew.

Then the pain was gone, and she was just...warm. Warmer than she had ever felt in her entire life. The only thing she could compare it to was the warmth she felt when she was with Liara, but even that didn't feel anything like this. It didn't feel possible..._Where did the pain go? _

Her senses started to come back to her, and she realized for the first time that she was breathing. The scent that filled her with every breath was so familiar to her, but she couldn't place it. She took a breath, then another. She knew she recognized the smell but...no it couldn't be, it smelt like..._Mindoir._

Her eyes flew open. She squinted as they were met by bright light, and soon her eyes adjusted to find a cloudless blue sky. She expected there to be pain as she tried to sit up, but to her surprise she raised herself into a sitting position with ease. She looked around her to find that she was on a small hill overlooking a field, and beyond that a settlement. After a moment she realized she recognized the buildings. It was the settlement she grew up in on Mindoir, her family's farm was a half mile south of the town behind the trees in the distance. But it hadn't looked like this since before the batarian attack.

Shepard knew she must be dreaming, but she never had a dream that felt this...real. Her hands flew to her face as if somehow checking every feature would prove to her that this was a dream. She checked for injuries, perhaps for signs of head trauma but everything felt alright. Except, suddenly, she realized that she couldn't find her usual scar across her left eyebrow. Shepard immediately lifted up her shirt to find that the small circle shaped scar she had received from a bullet wound had disappeared from its usual place near her hip bone. And her clothes...she was wearing worn out jeans and a t-shirt, clothes she hasn't worn since she was a teenager on Mindoir.

"What the _fuck_?" She exclaimed as it all came back to her. Earth. The Crucible. The Citadel. The Catalyst. Her choice. The burning. Was she knocked out or was she dead? She started to panic as her mind spun away from her.

"Shepard."

She froze. She knew that voice. It had haunted her dreams whenever she was lucky enough to even able to fall asleep. _Well at least I know its probably a dream now._

Rory looked behind her to find him walking towards her, wearing a white Alliance casual t-shirt and dark pants. She also noticed that he was carrying two beers.

"Kaidan?" She found herself asking, like she wasn't already fully aware of who was coming towards her.

"C'mon Commander, you know you can't a forget a face like this." He sat down next to her in the grass as he proceeded to laugh at his own joke. She had almost forgotten his laugh, it reminded her of down time on the original Normandy in the mess hall when they would sit with Ashley and play cards.

"Don't flatter yourself." She shot back automatically. Everyone had always thought of Kaidan as being serious, but Shepard knew once you got to know him it was impossible _not_ to joke with him.

"Well we both know I'm not blue enough for your liking anyway." He smiled at her as she laughed. Everything about him was exactly as she remembered. His brown eyes, his hair, his laugh, his voice. It was all so real, she couldn't even begin to believe it.

"Here, I brought you this." Kaidan twisted one of the beers open and handed it to her. "It's uh...a Canadian lager, I hope you like it."

She thanked him as she took the beer and took a sip. To his credit it tasted fantastic, though that could just be because she hadn't had a real beer in awhile. Somehow anything at Afterlife or Purgatory just didn't match up. She couldn't help but take in her surroundings as they sat and sipped their beers.

Everything around her reminded of her childhood. The big trees in the distance that she used to climb with her brothers. How she would walk into the main town with her mother to sell and trade what they grew on their farm. How she used to skip school with her friends and do nothing but lounge and skip rocks by the river. And how mad her father used to be when he found out. He would make her do chores all day, and later she would hear him laughing with her mother about how sometimes she was somehow more trouble than all three of her brothers combined.

Sometimes she couldn't believe that she was the same person as that girl who lived on a simple farm with her normal family. She almost had forced herself to forget that her younger self had even existed, it was too painful to even revisit the memories. She couldn't remember the good ones without going back to the old ones, so why bother? She had trained herself not to care. She honestly hadn't even known she remembered them until she sat here with Kaidan looking over the very place where that person had existed.

"It's a beautiful view." Kaidan said, finally breaking Shepard out of her thoughts.

"It is." She agreed. "It's so strange, I had almost forgotten how beautiful it was here. After all that destruction..."

"You shouldn't let the tragedy keep you from remembering what was really there." He said thoughtfully. She realized she couldn't tell if he was talking about Mindoir anymore or Virmire. She knew that even though this was probably a dream she now had a chance to say what she never could. She was always close to Kaidan, always felt she could confide in him, and somehow him sitting next to her allowed her to be more honest with herself.

"Kaidan I'm so sor-"

"I know Shepard." He cut her off. "C'mon, you should know I would never blame you for that. And it's a sacrifice I was willing to make, I mean look at where it got us, you blew those Reapers to hell."

_I what?_ As a light breeze it her face everything was suddenly starting to feel all too real. She didn't even know what happened...how could Kaidan?

"Kaidan, is this..." She couldn't even finish the sentence, she wasn't sure she could even begin to let herself believe it.

"Is this what Commander?" He asked her with that same smile.

_Heaven..._

She wanted to say it so badly, have him confirm it for her. She wasn't even sure if it would make her happy or sad to hear a "yes" from him. Is it where she would want to be? In the past she heard others talk about it, and she would have loved to believe it herself, but she always thought a heaven was too much to hope for, especially for her. She decided to take a long swig of her beer in place of answering his question.

"You made the right decision." Kaidan said, his voice as calm and steady as ever.

"Which decision?" she asked. Was it Virmire? The Catalyst? The Alpha Relay? All her decisions came with a serious price, Shepard didn't know if she could ever feel totally sure that any of her choices were the right ones.

"You made the right decision." All he did was repeat himself and turned his head back toward the view of her old home.

Shepard sighed in frustration. "You always did think you were pretty fucking deep didn't you Alenko?"

"With all due respect Shep, even Wrex is deep compared to you." There he goes making her laugh again.

Shepard couldn't remember a time where she felt like this-so carefree. She knew she should be concerned about exactly _where_ she was, but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to care. What could beat feeling this warm? Or sitting with a close friend drinking a beer in a place that was as beautiful as this?

"You know Alenko, I could get used to this." She sighed as she leaned back and closed her eyes, relishing the breeze.

"You can't."

"Why? Got somewhere to be Lieutenant?" Shepard responded lazily not even bothering to open her eyes.

"No I don't," Kaidan said softly as he started to get up. "but you do."

"What do you mean? I thought you said I blew the Reapers to hell."

"We both know you're not ready Shepard, there's still more things you need to do." He said as he helped her get to her feet. "People that need you."

_Liara. _Rory Shepard understood then that she wasn't going to staying here...wherever that was.

"Tell her and Ash I say hi okay?" His face actually started to look sad, and Shepard knew he was about to leave. She didn't want him to, but something inside her stopped her from asking him to stay.

"I...I miss you Kaidan." Shep felt her eyes start to sting with her rare display of emotion, but she couldn't hold it back. "We all do."

"Me too. You were always more than just a Commander to me Shepard, you're my friend." he told her while he actually pulled her into a hug. Shepard was never much of a hugger but she made the exception just this once. He felt so warm and so real, all her suspicions about this being a dream

"I don't know where you're going," Shepard said so softly she wasn't sure Kaidan would even hear it as he started to walk away. "or if this is even real or some really fucked up dream. And I don't know if they are even there...but could you tell my family just... that I love them, and I haven't forgotten about them?" The tears started to pool in her eyes and were dangerously threatening to spill over, and she couldn't bring herself to say anything else.

"Yeah, I will." Kaidan said like it was the simplest goddamn thing in the world. "I'll be seeing you..._Victoria_."

The tears finally spilled as her friend shot her one last smile before walking away and disappearing into the trees. The last time Shepard had been called by her birth name she was 16, and she had changed it to her nickname Rory the moment the Alliance marine who rescued her had asked for her name. No one knew the name except her family, not even Liara. She had almost forgotten that she had ever been called that name at all.

She didn't know where exactly she was, or why she was here. Maybe she really could never know for sure if this was real or not, but what she did know was that she was ready for whatever came next.

Shepard sat down again to look over what was once her home one last time. She had a new home now, and it was time for Rory to go back to her. She could feel the pain starting to creep up through her limbs again. The warmth began to turn back to burning, the comfort to agonizing pain. The clear blue sky of Mindoir was starting to blur as she started to struggle more and more with the pain. And as Commander Victoria "Rory" Shepard began to feel herself give into it and pass out she remembered one of the last things Garrus said to her before they made their way to the beam:

"_May you be in heaven a half hour before the devil knows your dead."_


End file.
